[The following are excerpts from Mark Nowell's journal that he took with him on his camping trip with his wife, Jill, as well as subsequent studies. His case is currently being investigated.]
December 30th, 2005
Jill and I set up camp near the base of the Snake River today. We really lucked out, seeing as it's usually too windy or has too high a blizzard warning around this time of year; not this year, it seems. We'll hike around for a bit tomorrow, but for now we're just going to take a long nap!
December 31st, 2005
Today was a beautiful day! Not a cloud in the sky, and the sunset over the Tetons was lovely. Didn't get much sleep last night, though. Some deer had gotten into something outside our tent last night, and its crumpling kept me up for a bit. It would've been ok if I didn't have to see his silhouette the whole night, though. Although, I thought deer hibernated this time of year? I could never get hibernation patterns right (even with my degree!) so I guess I'll just ask Jill.
January 2nd, 2006
Lovely hike today. Went to the Elk Reserve and was able to determine that deer don't even hibernate! I guess that solves that problem! However, it does not solve the problem that the deer got into our food and destroyed our tents. We're staying at a Best Western tonight, deciding it would be best to try to set up camp again once we're well-rested.
January 3rd, 2006
Set up camp again, this time a little farther down the south side of the Snake River. Jill and I checked out every possible place that deer could be hiding, and found none. Hopefully this means we won't have to go broke buying more tents!
January 5th, 2006
Today was an odd day. Jill and I sat around a campfire, playing some of our favorite songs (and got just a tad tipsy and started to sing horrendously). This went on for about an hour until we heard a huge crash behind us. As we turn around, instantly sobered by this enormous noise, we see that there is a giant hole in the ice cover of the Snake River. We stumble-rushed over to see if we could see what fell in, but it was too dark to tell. Whatever fell in didn't make any effort to get back up, so we decided it would be worthless to try and save it.
January 6th, 2006
I woke up this morning, Jill not by my side. She left a note saying she was going for a walk at about 8 AM, and would be back by 10. It's 1 PM right now and I have no way of contacting her. Damn her and her "au natural" camping motif. She would've camped out the night our tent was destroyed if I hadn't forced her to check into the hotel with me. I'm going out looking for her.
January 6th, 2006
It's 7 PM as I'm writing this. I'm waiting in the Jackson Hole Sheriff's Department, waiting for word on how the search for Jill is going. They're saying she might have gotten attacked by some animal if she was out walking this whole time, but she's smart enough to stay away from wild animals. Although, as much as I want to believe she's ok, my gut knows she's probably passed out somewhere, dying in the cold. And the damn police won't find her in time, they never do. Fuck them. I'm going out to find her.
January 7th, 2006
Just around midnight. I don't even know what I saw. I do feel like this will be one of the last things I write down, so I will try to describe the event I witnessed in hopes that anyone who finds my body knows what happened.
I went out on the trail I thought Jill would have started on. I walked along it for about two hours until I found her corpse - blood spattered against the trees, limbs quite clearly chewed off from her body. A disgusting sight. I felt my stomach turning, and I threw up right there on the spot. As I recovered, I heard a rustling behind me. The creature I saw when I turned was not one known to any human being. This thing was close to human, despite its four eyes and horrible antlers. Its mouth, resembling a beak but still containing sharp, bloodied teeth, opened wide and let out a para-human scream, lunging at me with speed above that of my reaction time. It tackled me to the floor and snarled, showing me its teeth again, almost forming a smile. Before it was able to bite me, however, I pushed it off and ran through the forest back to my car. As I am writing this, I am staying at the Best Western. I'm leaving first thing in the morning. Something tells me the police won't believe my story.
I just wish I could have done something to help save Jill.
[This is the last entry in Mr. Nowell's journal. The next records of his encounter with the creature are the following research papers, dated late 2011, possibly around the same time his wife went missing. The paper has a note scribbled near the top, saying, "I found it!!"]
Weight: 90.7 kg
Height: 2.5 meters
Appearance: Humanlike, walks upright. Has extremities similar to fingers and toes, though fingernails seem to resemble claws. Covered with a thick brown fur, although the face is hairless. Mouth contains a set of 50 teeth, all sharpened to a point. The mouth and lips seem to be formed in the shape of a beak, but it still contains muscles and bones. The nose is barely present, a slight bump with nostrils. Four eyes are present, black with no apparent pupils. Two antlers, making up .5 meters of its total height, protrude from the top of the skull.
Skin is thick, hard to cut through with standard scalpels, or even knives. Accounts for the seven blows to the head I had to give it before it died.
Today, as I was performing an autopsy on this creature (whom I have affectionally named Bastard), I heard a commotion outside my basement window. As I peered out, I saw 4 sets of the same eyes on Bastard staring at me. Within seconds, I hear a clatter and I fall to the floor. Bastard was alive, and before I could shove it off, it was able to get a piece of my neck. They all escaped before I had a chance to capture any.
[Nowell's original notes appear here, unedited. From this entry onward, holes appear in the paper. The text they affect has been marked with brackets for the reader's convenience.]
day 1 after bite, 7 pm
i have grown a thick hair o[ ]hole body, but my face is unaffected. nails are long and sharp, cutti[ ]aper. need story down, tho[ ] bite must cause changesin geno[ ]. sight unaffected.
day 2 1am
antlers grew painful. [ ] great screams. beautiful. i need to joi[ ]. family needs me. famil[ ]. family.
join.
